With the trading deadline past, the Knicks last night announced Marcus Camby is expected to miss the rest of the season following an MRI on his torn hip muscle.

That’s no shocker and should not rock the Knicks’ world. The Knicks are all but out of the playoff race anyway – 14 games below .500, firmly entrenched in the Atlantic Division basement and one-half game out of 13th place in the East.

The 6-foot-11 Camby wasn’t going to change that, even if he returned in early April. The worst part of the news is the projected season-ending injury will only damage his trade value in the summer, as his injury-prone rep has hit an all-time low.

Fact is, when healthy, he is their defensive glue.

A Knick spokesman said Camby’s torn iliopsoas hip muscle has “improved little” and he’ll “likely miss the rest of the regular season.”

Camby is to begin rehab in a pool and won’t be 100 percent until late May, when the lottery-bound Knicks will have been on the golf course for more than a month.

Camby will seek a second opinion today from Dr. David Altchek but expects the same diagnosis. “We’re just covering our bases,” Camby’s business manager, Rick Kaplan, said. “We’ll also get recommendations for therapy.”

Injury-plagued across his career, Camby played a career-low 29 games this season after missing the first 14 with plantar fasciaitis of the left foot that he now believes was caused by putting on 15 pounds of muscle during summer weight-lifting.

Still bothered by the foot, Camby crashed to the Conseco Field House court Feb. 1, injuring his hip.

Said Kaplan: “Marcus is extremely disappointed and in disbelief. The season started out with so much to look forward to after working out. Everything snowballed. The silver lining is this gives the foot a chance to completely heal.”

The Post reported Saturday the possibility of Camby being gone for the season, despite the Knicks’ original three- to six-week diagnosis. Rumblings around the league have the Knicks giving an optimistic diagnosis so as not to scare off potential suitors before the deadline.

Concerned about building a team around this historically brittle center, GM Scott Layden shopped Camby extensively.

Asked about the original diagnosis, Camby said on Saturday, “I trust Dr. [Fred] Cushner. He gave me a full evaluation, so you can never be 100 percent right. I trust our staff. I hope they would never do that to me.”

Camby said Saturday he wanted to play again this season regardless of whether the Knicks were out of the playoff race. He still is clinging to a shred of hope he’ll return by April.